Riley Eubanks
The State Journal-Register
Springfield union workers made it clear they want a “fair” collective bargaining agreement during a public meeting Tuesday.
After months of stalled negotiations and in some cases more than a year without a contract, union workers from the Office of Public Works, City Water, Light and Power‘s water division and clerical workers from various citywide operations filled the council’s chambers during Tuesday’s Springfield Committee of the Whole meeting calling for a new contract.
“For over a year, we have been pushing the city to negotiate and they have slow walked us every step of the way,” said Gene Mitchell, staff representative for AFSCME Council 31, which represents the three unions of subject.
“We look at the long-term future when we’re doing contract negotiations,” said Springfield Mayor Jim Langfelder following the committee meeting. “That’s why you have to look at what the raise means today as well as how does that compute to future dollars.”
The only other comparably noteworthy action taken during Tuesday’s meeting was members opting to hold an ordinance in committee that would fund $1.2 million toward an overflow shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness at the former site of an adult rehabilitation center at 221 N. 11th St.
Mitchell organized the rally, which boasted around 100 members protesting the absence of a contract. Leading with a blowhorn, he culminated the showing by leading members to the council’s chambers in the middle of the meeting and walking to the podium reserved for testimony to call for a new contract, interrupting discussion of an unrelated ordinance.
Langfelder and Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin criticized the move.
“(Mitchell) should know better,” McMenamin said post-adjournment. “You just can’t disrupt a public meeting like that.” He did, however, compliment them attending the meeting and said they really sent a message when they stood in the back of the council chambers for a few minutes, holding signs calling for a ‘fair’ contract.
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One of the primary objectives of the historic legislation was to ensure proper payment for employees working through the pandemic, Mitchell said. Looking forward, he said the city should at least pay city workers wages that are in line with the Consumer Price Index, as Springfield has in past contracts.
Average salaries, including overtime, for city workers in 2020 were $44,052, $62,099 and $81,747, respectively, for clerical, public works and CWLP water division union members, according to documents provided by the city.
“The one thing I can say is the proof’s in the pudding: there’s no furloughs, no layoffs,” Langfelder said, referencing the city not laying off city employees so far during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “We protected our workers through this whole pandemic, when not everybody can say that in the workforce.”
Mitchell said he has had more than 100 in-person bargaining meetings with the city since February 2020. Though he agreed progress has been made on a number of requests, he said the city has been reluctant to discuss the core issues separating the workers from a contract.
Contracts for three unions — AFSCME Local 337 (water division), 3417 (public works) and 3738 (clerical) — expired in the summer of 2020 after months of negotiations. Further meetings between union representatives and Springfield are planned for August.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 